All the books I read in April and what I thought of them

In April I read 6 books and most of them were about Islam and all of them were for school in some capacity. It was not a terribly interesting reading month, and I miss reading books entirely for fun that are exciting instead of boring and/or sectarian, but these things are hard to make time for when one is really busy procrastinating going to sleep and doing one's homework. Reading for fun is sort of a hard habit to get back into. But now I am rerereading SPQR which is one of my comfort nonfiction books, and I have an extremely ambitious reading list for the summer, and it's almost finals week!! Or possibly my final week? You can draw a conclusion as to which one depending on whether you hear from me next month. Just kidding, it could never be my final week because death fears me. 

It is going to be a good summer. I feel that my life is improving, even though I hate this godforsaken wretched season (spring), as well as the next one (summer). But at least I will be able to live the life I was meant to live, that is, sleeping and reading books and then feeling very strongly about them. I am begging any book reviewing related publication to employ me. I am also open to being solicited for any occupation that primarily involves sleeping. 

✨✨✨

Islam: The Religion and the People by Bernard Lewis

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This book was approachable and readable and all, but the author seems to think that conservative/fundamentalist Islam is the only interpretation of the religion that exists. You can look at any public opinion poll of Muslims and you will see that there is so much more diversity of opinion than this author could ever possibly imagine. But if you want to understand the very fundamental points of Islam and also some more in depth aspects (albeit from a conservative perspective), I think this book is probably a fine place to start.

☪️☪️☪️

Islam's Fateful Path: The Critical Choices Facing Modern Muslims by Zidane Meriboute

rating: ⭐⭐✨

I don't understand how it is possible for a book to discuss Sufi mysticism as much as this one did without really explaining in more than the vaguest terms what Sufis believe and how Sufi orders affect Muslim societies. The writing style was sort of dry and ultimately it was just not that helpful for my essay.

🕌🕌🕌

Death In Beirut by Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad translated by Leslie McLoughlin

rating: ⭐

It is impossible for me to adequately describe how much of a struggle it was for me to read this book. It was so, so boring. I didn't care at all. I couldn't concentrate and I don't know what happened. I don't know which character was which, and I could not even summarize the plot for you. I remember that the main character gets sexually assaulted by one of the love interests and then she starts having an affair with him and every character as well as the narrative itself acts as if this was a normal and fine relationship. 

📢📢📢

The Trojan Women by Eurypides translated by Diskin Clay

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I read this book for my Greek history class, and the quality of the assigned reading was similar to the quality of the class (I love my Greek history class). I enjoyed the lamentations, such as ototototoi and ea ea. War crimes are bad for sure.

⚔️⚔️⚔️

Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty by Mustafa Akyol

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love Mustafa Akyol. I went to a talk he gave about religious freedom and religious police in Islam and it counted as extra credit for two whole classes, so it was a win on a lot of levels. Another win I have experienced is that the Cato Institute puts libertarian books on the internet for free so that people will get sucked into their ideology, but the joke is on them because I got to read this book for free, it was written by my best friend Mustafa Akyol, it is helping me with my essay a lot, and I skipped the chapter about how Islam supports capitalism. THE CATO INSTITUTE CAN TRY TO INDOCTRINATE ME BUT I WILL NEVER BE A LIBERTARIAN!! No offense to any libertarians reading my blog. 🥰

🗽🗽🗽

Original Unity of Man and Woman by Pope John Paul II

rating: ⭐⭐

I actually have no idea what this book was about; I read an article for a different project I'm working on that talked a lot about this book, so I read it to see whether the argument in the article is supported by this book, and it seems like it kind of isn't at all, although I, again, didn't understand it, so it's really anyone's guess. At least it was easy to skim. If you want to read some of Pope John Paul's writing, I would really recommend his letter to women which is kind of really fun. He's so positive. He says, and I quote, "Thank you, every woman for the simple fact of being a woman!" His italics, his exclamation point. As a woman I feel so hyped up. He could be my hype man if he weren't dead. Then there's a part about how he thinks women who are raped shouldn't get abortions (although he also says in that case the more important sin is rape, not abortion). But it's just such a good letter that I can almost forgive. I understand the argument that him talking about the "genius of women" can be problematic because it enforces gender roles and makes women seem "other" (I actually don't know whether that's the argument against it), but honestly I kind of like it. Like, yes, I am a genius! Five stars to Pope John Paul's letter to women. This book was whatever. 

🕵️‍♀️👩‍🚒👩‍⚖️

The books I read this month were not terribly exciting but my readers can at least look forward to my May blog post when I will have read so many interesting and exciting books that it will make your head spin.